[L, diary, ephēmeris] 1) BLOG

In this century, and moment, of mania,

tell me a story.

Make it a story of Great distances and starlight.

The name of the story will be Time,

but you must not pronounce its name.

Tell me a story of deep delight.

--Robert Penn Warren--

     This morning, while thinking of last night's gathering of cruisers and local neighbors to view a video travelog of one family's sailing life aboard their home, the catamaran EMMA PEEL, I was also thumbing through an old journal to verify something trivial when I came across the above quote.  It had been hastily added to the end of an entry with no explanation of its significance to me, though I could guess: it was a challenging concept to illustrate in a visual, not literary, medium.

     Pleased with myself to have, even momentarily, captured (and then recaptured) the quote for a meaningful project I then wondered, But HOW? What metaphors, what images or colors might shape the story of time, without using the word? 

     Immediately I knew: last night's video presentation exactly fulfilled the poem's stipulations. Robert's family and their life was exactly a story about time, great distances, starlight, and deep delights.  The tale he narrated was of a dream spawned in his Austrian youth, to sail the Pacific in a boat named for his star-struck, teen-aged love for an adventurous actress in a television series.  The video began when, as an adult, he'd found his boat in Malaysia, then sailed to the Philippines where he fell in love with Maritess, an adventurous Filipina, an experienced sailor who loved life afloat. They married, had a son, Louis, and together the three of them produced sailing videos and chartering expeditions for European travelers.  

     Robert's video was narrated alternately by music chosen to accompany sequences of photos without oral narrative, and Robert's instant  translation into English for scenes with Louis' acute German observations of sailing life with Mama & Poppa. Interwoven throughout was an unmistakable tribute of deep respect and love for Maritess,  displayed in cumulative photos as she skillfully, joyfully and knowledgeably fulfilled her multiple roles of First Mate, Wife, Mother, Ship's Provisioner & Cook; a true Wise Woman in the ways of holistic living.

For,

What is time if not each individual's life?

What is a boat if not a traveler of great distances...

of starlight passages, unexpected deep delights?

Has it not been thus for centuries...

wandering peoples...afloat...on land?

Possibly these stories need to be told even more so, now,

in this century's extreme moment of mania.

    Robert's fulfillment (to my satisfaction) of Penn Warren's poem has pleased and relieved me of feeling unfulfilled if I don't also produce a version, though on the other hand, it sets a creative opportunity to contribute my own vision along similar lines; a different facet of a prism's rainbow. 

It is only...from a place of gratefulness that we can perform beautiful acts —

from a place of absolute, ravishing appreciation for the sheer wonder of being alive at all,

each of us an improbable and temporary triumph

over the staggering odds of nonbeing and nothingness inking the ledger of spacetime.

But because we are human,

because we are batted about by the violent immediacies of everyday life,

such gratitude eludes us as a continuous state of being.

We access it only at moments,

only when the trance of busyness lifts and the blackout curtain of daily demands parts to let the radiance in,

those delicious moments when we find ourselves awash in nonspecific gladness,

grateful not to this person, grateful not for this turn of events, but grateful at life —

a diffuse gratitude that irradiates every aspect and atom of the world,

however small, however unremarkable, however coated with the dull patina of habit.

In those moments, everything sings, everything shimmers.

In those moments, we are most alive.

--Maria Popova--

It's been a month since last posting and two weeks since the students received their personal sketchbooks, a gift from the Urban Sketchers of Ashland group we were invited to join. If you follow the link in their name, a posting of them with their sketchbooks along with seven 'comments' beneath showcasing their first sketches.  Thank You's and descriptions of their work included.

This last weekend, due to possible showers, we opted for quick photos to sketch from, rather than plein air. From top to bottom, Resty Joy, Jaden, Jacen, Monica, and Jessa, here are their latest/bountiful/enthusiastic/increasingly skillful works:

Regrettably, Ludy was not able to participate last Saturday, and I have no idea where Jane Antoinette's work is but will post it later, here and to our group at Urban Sketchers of Ashland.

In the meantime, to include them in this post, to a friend I wrote:  

" Ludy astounded me by the progressive skill in each of her three paintings.

Jane Antoinette told me that she'd thought she wanted to be a teacher when she graduated but, now

(nodding to her sketch book)  

"I want to do this..."

Beautiful, isn't it, how alive to their abilities they are becoming..?